August 25, 2016

ADDED: This video is very affecting and has an important message, which I don't mean to diminish, but I'm just going to appropriate it for a couple seconds to make a nonverbal argument about what is surely a less important matter, but it is something I've been talking about for a long time: men in shorts:

Texting has become the cause du jour (and in many ways, rightfully so) but the bottom line is distracted and unsafe driving needs to be addressed.

I spent ~3 years of my life driving with <4 hours of sleep per night due to children. And I don't mean 2 rough nights in a row - I mean months at a time without getting adequate sleep. I am sure in a reaction time and cognitive testing battery, I would have scored similar to those notably over the legal limit for alcohol.

I could go on, but the bottom line is people have become comfortable piloting 1.5-3 ton vehicles in the most ridiculous of ways - texting, singing karaoke, inebriated, high, tailgating/swerving lanes. Some of this comfort is due to societal acceptance, some of it is due to advances in automotive manufacturing.

It needs to be addressed.

Full disclosure: I speed. I drive a high performance car and I drive ~10-15% faster than cars and trucks around me. I justify this to myself, I don't tailgate, and I don't swerve through lanes. But I do justify it, and I know driving slower would be safer.

I read and comment at Althouse while I'm driving. Drives my wife crazy. I also eat, drink, talk to passengers, yell at my kids, listen to the radio, follow my napping tool, talk on the radio, take glasses on and off, move the visor when the sun is shining in a particular direction, blow my nose, take off my shoes, put on my shoes, take off articles of clothing (like a sweater if it gets too hot), and many other things while I drive.

I have lost count of the number times in just the last month in which I was behind a driver at a red light who was texting and didn't see the light change. While I don't tend to notice the other driver's actions inside the car when I am in motion myself, it scares the crap out of me to think these same people are probably looking at the phone even when moving.

My youngest sister was in a head-on accident a couple of years ago, when a 17 year old girl swerved into her lane on a two lane road, and was nearly killed in the accident. My sister spent months in rehabilitation, and will spend the rest of her life with physical limitations due to it. We didn't try to prove it, but we suspect the other driver was on her phone and over-corrected back onto the road after running off the shoulder.

To keep up with e-mail and Facebook, of course. That said, everyone should be entitled to a personal secretary. This would reduce the occurrence of road-related abortions, stimulate the job market, and mitigate HOV disparity.

Point is, Mike, distracted driving is distracted driving. Having some yappy dog sitting on your lap or three labs barking in the backseat is just as dangerous; why isn't that the focus of public outrage?

"Point is, Mike, distracted driving is distracted driving. Having some yappy dog sitting on your lap or three labs barking in the backseat is just as dangerous; why isn't that the focus of public outrage?"

Personally, I find loose dogs unacceptable too. But as to public outrage, the fact that the ratio of texters to loose dogs is, who knows, 1,000 to 1? is probably relevant.

Why can't you put the freakin phone down until you get to your destination?

Nah, you just wait until the stoplights. Better than nothing I guess, but still not great. I do not understand this compulsion. If it were your life and limb I wouldn't care, but these people put others at great risk too. The analogy to drunk driving is completely apt.

I don't know where eric lives but I would like to know, can he tell me where to get a napping tool cheap? Often I'd like to nap on slow workday afternoons but can never overcome my misplaced conscientiousness about such things.

Will text at red lights but otherwise am terribly censorious about texting drivers. Most of the time I use the bus and/or walk, however; my current peeve is those drivers who wait at the red light (not turning right, on red, as they are entitled to do)-- they may be thinking that I am going to use the crosswalk against the lights?-- until the instant the green appears, which happens often a half second before the pedestrian crossing light comes on. I will wait patiently for the p. crossing light only to find that if I actually begin to cross at that point the right-turning vehicle will be accelerating into the crosswalk. Now of course I am paying attention and see that the vehicle is begun moving so there's been no bloodshed yet. But...

Since 2004, number of texts in the US have increased by about 20 times while traffic deaths have fallen by a quarter.

The long term trend has been down since the early '70s so it's probably not true that texting makes driving safer (although it's easy to come up with an explanation of why that would be true), but even if it makes driving more dangerous, it's impossible for the effect to be very large.

I'm not texting while I drive... I'm using the map app to find the nearest liquor store when the flask I'm drinking starts to get low.

More seriously, in my state it is now illegal for a driver to have a cell phone in their hand, even if they are stopped. That seems like overkill to me. Obviously you should not text while actually driving, but reading a text from your spouse at a long stop light doesn't seem like it should be illegal. It will get you a ticket here.

My husband and I were just talking about this. We are motorcycle riders and have seen things that I never thought people could do driving. We do not text and drive in the car and what is so important that it can't wait until you stop or get home. We lived many years without a phone attached to our ears and so can everyone else. Our children screech if the phone rings while we're driving, but no one answers if we're in the car.

"More seriously, in my state it is now illegal for a driver to have a cell phone in their hand, even if they are stopped."

Is it okay to have it resting on a surface but to touch it in the way that activates Siri? Is it okay to have the earbud in and to touch the microphone on the earbud wire to activate Siri? That's all I would do.

I have a problem with kids texting and biking. I often walk on a mixed use path -- bikes and pedestrians -- where there are cyclists who look younger than 16 who have phones out and one hand off the handlebar and are looking at the phone as they swerve around people. This path often has children and old people, and the bike riders are already the kind who ride in that kid way where you go way to one side or the other with each pedal push (instead of keeping a straight line).

I agree with eric. We do all kinds of activities in our cars and, most of the the time, we don't cause an accident. Just as most of the time, we can drink and drive without causing an accident. Most of the time, we can fish the baby's pacifier off the floor or eat a burger without wrecking. The idea that we have committed a CRIME by simply having an arbitrary blood alcohol content is ridiculous. Do I want people driving drunk? No, nor do I want the oncoming driver to be turning around and soothing the crying baby until after they are past me. Do I want people texting and driving? Does it matter if I approve? They are going to text anyway and I'd rather they did it with the phone in front of them instead of sneaking furtive glances at the phone in their lap.

"Is it okay to have it resting on a surface but to touch it in the way that activates Siri? Is it okay to have the earbud in and to touch the microphone on the earbud wire to activate Siri? That's all I would do."

I believe those things are legal.

From the (Nevada) state DMV website: "Texting, accessing the internet and hand-held cell phone use while driving are illegal". So, having the phone in your hand is actually illegal (and is what a policeman observes to trigger writing you a ticket).

"You can talk using a hands-free headset and, while making voice calls, touch the phone to “activate, deactivate or initiate a feature or function on the device.”"This would allow you to touch the phone to dial, hang up, and presumably activate Siri. But note by the wording that texting and accessing the internet are still illegal, even if the phone isn't in your hand. So even glancing at your phone could be a violation, though pretty difficult to get caught at if you aren't holding the phone in your hand. Siri might be a grey area, because although voice controlled, you are accessing the internet. I doubt one would ever get cited for it

I actually think those are pretty reasonable rules - I just don't think they should apply when the vehicle is not moving.

I agree that this is a very effective ad. But I was doubtful of the kids saying they'd stop texting. One hit it on the head -- you have to stop, cold turkey, and keep stopped so it becomes your habit. For many, obsessive phone checking is simply a bad habit. I suspect if you don't stop checking when you're not in your car, you'll keep checking when you are in your car.

Am I supposed to believe that young woman repeated her tale of woe, word for word, to each of those young airheads? Or, alternatively, am I supposed to believe that they pretended to be all broken up about what they were hearing when in fact, they weren't really hearing it? Am I the only person who thinks this way?

"If your mem'ry serves you wellWe were goin' to meet again and waitSo I'm goin' to unpack all my thingsAnd sit before it gets too lateNo man alive will come to youWith another tale to tellAnd you know that we shall meet againIf your mem'ry serves you wellThis wheel's on fireRolling down the road,Best notify my next of kinThis wheel shall explode

If your mem'ry serves you wellI was goin' to confiscate your laceAnd wrap it up in a sailor's knotAnd hide it in your caseIf I knew for sure that it was yoursBut it was oh so hard to tellAnd you know that we would meet againIf your mem'ry serves you wellThis wheel's on fireRolling down the roadBest notify my next of kinThis wheel shall explode

If your mem'ry serves you wellYou'll remember you're the oneThat called on me to call on themTo get you your favors doneAnd after ev'ry plan had failedAnd there was nothing more to tellYou knew that we would meet againIf your mem'ry served you wellThis wheel's on fireIt's rolling down the roadBest notify my next of kinThat this wheel shall explode"

Texting seems to be for too many people an all-absorbing activity. Texters are often oblivious to their surroundings. Texting is similar to the "internet chat" it replaced. Obsessive chatting often ruined people.

I wonder if texters listen to people with the same intensity they apply to the words on those little screens.

I have seen people walk into streets staring at their phones, sometimes never looking up. I have stood on sidewalks and waited for texters to realize they are about to walk into me, catching themselves with only a few feet to go. People have walked off of cliffs while texting.

Texting does not distract driving. Driving fails to distract the obsessive texter.